#469: Holy Week and Easter Special
Palm Sunday, Holy Week and Easter
This Sunday is Palm Sunday, and we travel alongside Jesus to Jerusalem, through the events of Holy Week, to the Cross and eventually Easter Sunday. Please do come along, either in church or at home on the livestream, to as much as you can over this week. It’s important for yourself and for others – we are a community and we gain from journeying with each other. The full list of services is below in a poster, with some extra information for those services which need it. If you can’t get to a service, or it isn’t livestreamed, try to find some quiet and stillness in your day to wait and pray.
Palm Sunday For those who would like to, please gather at St Paul’s Junior School in the carpark (Oxford Road) for 9.10am, ready to begin our noisy triumphant procession, waving our palms at 9.15am up to St Paul’s Church. Alternatively, please gather in Church to greet the procession and we start as usual at 9.30am. There are also services at 10am at Woosehill, and 11am at St Nick’s.
Maundy Thursday (17th April) St Paul’s (LS) 8pm Mass with Foot Washing, Stripping of the Altars & Vigil until Midnight.
We need 12 volunteers to have their foot washed, if you would like to do this, please let Cara and/or Peter Wells know – cara.smart@spauls.co.uk and peter.wells@spauls.co.uk, and please bring your own towel. There will also be a sign up sheet at the back of church. It’s probably worth adding that the phrase “if you would like to do this” is likely not that accurate! It felt uncomfortable for Peter and the disciples, it feels uncomfortable for us, and yet it is beautiful and moving and a gift from our Lord for us all.
Please also bring bells for the fanfare before the Gloria.
Christopher Cipkin will be playing an extended Bach work as an organ meditation before the service. He’ll be starting at 7.45pm so please get to church or join online just before then so you can hear all of it. He has also kindly provided these excellent notes, which will be printed in church, and are here for those joining online.
Easter Sunday will be a glorious celebration! There is breakfast after the 5.30am Dawn Service, please sign up for that. Then at the 9.30am All Age Service, please bring instruments, ribbons, bells to wave around and make a joyful noise! If loud noises are uncomfortable, it will happen just before the Gloria so please do step outside for a minute or so if you need.
This was shared on last year’s Bertie, and is well worth sharing again:
Tim Schenck has written these words of invitation and encouragement for parishes all over the world:
“When you hear clergy strongly encouraging you to attend the services of Holy Week, especially the Great Three Days (Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, the Easter Vigil), it’s not just because they like to see more people in the pews, or it’s good for their egos, or they want parishioners to see how much effort goes into these liturgies.
It’s because they believe in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and the transforming power of the Christian faith. It’s because they love you and want nothing more than for you to have such a moving encounter with our Lord, that it will change your life. It’s an invitation rooted in profound love, and a recognition that there is literally nothing more important in the entire world than to participate fully as we collectively journey from the Upper Room to Calvary to the Empty Tomb.
I hope you will join your local parish a lot this week. And I bid you all a most blessed Holy Week.”
Churches Together Wokingham – Holy Week
Palm Sunday (13th April): There is a donkey for the All Saints Palm Sunday Procession through Wokingham town centre. The Procession will leave All Saints at 10.30 am and will stop at the Baptist, Methodist and Salvation Army churches before returning to All Saints for lunch at 12 noon. All are welcome to join in.
GOOD FRIDAY (18 April). Our witness will be a simple time of silence, singing and scripture in the Market Place.
At 11 am an all-age service will take place at All Saints, to which all CTW member churches are welcome.
The Walk of Witness in silence with the cross will leave All Saints at about 11.40, reaching the Market place at midday
The Walk will continue to the Salvation Army ending with hot cross buns.
Good Friday Activities
Lucky Numbers
The Lucky Numbers draw for April took place over coffee after the 9.30 Mass at St Paul’s on Sunday 6th April 2025.
Congratulations to the lucky winners:
£50 No. 1 Teri Austen
£25 No. 29 Ann Mayers
£15 No. 63 Peter Baker
£10 No. 56 Mike Dyer
As you know, Lucky Numbers is a monthly draw which was launched in 1997 under the title Spire 2000. The money raised is dedicated to providing a fund for restoration and renewals work on St Paul’s church building. Fifty percent of the total income from the sale of its shares is distributed as prizes to the first four winners of each draw throughout the year; all remaining funds go towards this restoration and renewals fund.
Although a number of new shareholders have stepped forward recently, the draw still requires more shareholders to bring the number back up to the level needed to sustain the current monthly prize structure of £50, £25, £15 and £10. Each share in the draw costs £2.00 per month and the total number of shares is unlimited so you can apply for as many as you wish.
The draw takes place monthly, at either St Paul’s or St Nicholas, Emmbrook.
Should you wish to take part in the draw, both to support our parish church and to enjoy the chance of being a winner, please contact Mary Cassidy at St Paul’s, Tony Roberts at St Nicholas, Emmbrook or Liz Gallagher also at St Nicholas. Tony Roberts can also be contacted by phone on 0118 9795351 or 07810 643770.
We look forward to hearing from you.
APCM Sunday 27th April 2025 to be held in the Parish Rooms at 5pm.
Anyone on the Electoral Roll is invited to attend the meeting.
At the meeting we will need to elect or re-elect two churchwardens for St Paul’s, two pro-wardens for St Nick’s, and two PCC members.
If you are interested in becoming a PCC member and have been on the Electoral Roll for at least 6 months, please speak to Lesley or one of the churchwardens as soon as possible and complete a nomination form. PCC meetings are held 6 times a year on Monday evenings.
The papers for the meeting and the nomination forms are all available on our website and in hard copy at the back of church.
Please consider whether you are called to stand, and pray for the life and work of the PCC, its effectiveness, commitment and openness to the guidance of God.
Tea and coffee will be served at the start of the meeting.
Lesley Ruddock, PCC Secretary
Churchyard
Our hardworking churchyard team had some lovely feedback recently about how well kept our churchyard is. Thank you to them all.
We would love some more volunteers to join our churchyard team every other Saturday from about 9am to 3pm (but it’s absolutely fine if people can only come along for part of that time). Refreshments (including cakes!) are served at coffee time and lunchtime. More information from Andy Clark: andy.clark2012@gmail.com
Lastly….
This will be the last Bertie email until after Easter, when that little mouse will be back after his Lenten break in reporting! So I’ll finish by wishing you a God-filled Holy Week.
May the cross carry you through whatever pain and suffering assails you.
May you go forward with courage with Christ.
May you know the love of Christ’s sacrifice and may you let it change you. Amen.
